A gem cut from his mother's eye

Compassionate stems grew inside

The bud of life overwhelms another

Your mother was a lovely lady

Her infectious smile and kindness

Seemed to seep

Into anyone she'd ever met with

She always had time for anyone

Who had the time to talk about

The struggles of the human condition

Your father was a man's man

Building houses you grew up in,

With his hands, he taught

The meaning of the boulder

"Keep rolling son, no matter how hard it gets you must remember that to struggle

Is to live to prevent another"

But you struggled to prevent another

Your struggle, passed down upon another

Growing into your teens

The delinquent scenes

Of stealing from corner stores

You were a blender of all colours

You cast yourself aside by choice

With others that came

From a place of hurting

In the home or some other

It was in this hurting

They yielded from some other

That they made you feel welcomed

Like a brother

But it wasn't until the big kids

Drew a stake out from the soil

And beat the shit

Out of a stray cat in passing

They laughed as they left you

With this animal, barely breathing enough

To murmur out to its mother

Even a cat knows

When to call help from it's mother

But it is a voice that is raised

In order to recover

You cried as you lowered the rock

That caused the cats heart to stop

That day, you learnt the meaning of

The boulder.

Yeah that day

You turned some years older

Yeah that day

You turned several years older

Now Joseph is his old man's man

Mature in age, and using his hands

To reach into the family of another

He plays the father role for a child

That lacked the figure, love is not enough

If you're to leave then don't bother

I know you were here to be a lover

But you saw something more

Than just a mother

Then Joseph dealt the cards of fate

But folded before the bet was raised

He didn't stick around to be a lover

Instead he left track marks on arms

And stole from the kid's school fund

To pump his veins full of what recovered

Your fists became the boulder

Instead of building homes,

You broke 'em down

Remember son

To struggle is to prevent another

Remember son

To struggle is to prevent another

It still feels like yesterday

I heard your mother passed away

All alone in her little flat in Melbourne

Her senility and kindness

Withered down by schizophrenia

Her voices echo humankind's condition

Her voice, it stays with you forever

Joseph, Joseph

You've only got yourself now

Well It was just the other day

That you sauntered past me in town

A wrinkle-littered face

A harmless scowl